


Something I noticed about Riley in As You Were

by thenewbuzwuzz_nonfic (thenewbuzwuzz)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Episode: s06e15 As You Were, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Meta, Nonfiction, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24054607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenewbuzwuzz/pseuds/thenewbuzwuzz_nonfic
Summary: Not fic. In "As You Were", Riley tells Buffy he hasn't slept for 48 hours. This makes the episode significantly more entertaining for me.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Buffyverse Top 5





	Something I noticed about Riley in As You Were

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [on Dreamwidth about a week ago](https://thenewbuzwuzz.dreamwidth.org/184519.html).

We've all been spared my Riley-centric As You Were rewrite - didn't pan out - but in the course of planning it, I noticed a thing that makes the episode more entertaining for me.

When I say noticed, I mean it is plainly stated in dialogue, I just never really thought about it.

Riley tells Buffy he hasn't slept for 48 hours, quote, "I've been up for 48 hours straight". (Here's a [link to the relevant bit of transcript.)](http://vrya.net/bdb/clip.php?clip=3604)

The first couple of times I watched the episode, this kind of went over my head. I took it to mean that this plot he's introducing is supposed to be important and urgent. But it also means something about Riley's state of mind.

If he's not lying or exaggerating -- and it's more fun to assume he isn't -- then he must be very, very sleepy for the whole episode. The man has pulled an all-nighter, gone through the next day, and pulled _another_ all-nighter, and that's the state he's in when he arrives in Sunnydale.

According to my [cursory](https://www.everydayhealth.com/conditions/what-happens-when-you-dont-sleep-days/) internet [research](https://www.outsideonline.com/2292806/your-body-no-sleep), the effects of staying awake for over 48 hours may include:

  * short-term memory problems (functioning on autopilot, losing even large chunks of time, difficulty remembering faces and words)
  * impaired judgment, a tendency to react more to negative stimuli, getting jumpy and judgmental, less reasonable
  * even 24 hours of no sleep is comparable to being a bit too drunk to drive
  * microsleep, which means you can black out at any time for up to 20 or maybe 30 seconds (depending on who you ask) and not notice it
  * some sources say, and my occasionally sleep-deprived Dreamwidth friends list confirms, that hallucinations can start once you're past 48 hours. Inanimate objects talking to you, seeing armed enemies that turn out to be trees when you inspect them more closely, that kind of thing.



To be fair, apparently the adrenaline-filled situation and his military training could make some of the effects milder. I suppose functioning on autopilot is less of a problem if you're well-trained to function on autopilot. But do I want to be fair? Not particularly.

Soooo I have some headcanons.

\- Any time he's having a conversation with another character in this episode, it's anyone's guess how much of it he hears. He can miss up to half a minute with nobody the wiser, just by falling asleep for a moment. (I was unsure whether he could do that and remain standing, but he probably can, according to my Dreamwidth sources...)

\- Anything he does hear, he can instantly forget.

\- I headcanon he totally drove off the road or something while Buffy and him were pursuing the demon in the car, during the bit where we change POV to Xander and Anya. Then, maybe Buffy suggested he shouldn't be driving in this state, he refused to let _Buffy_ drive, it was a whole thing, and that's why there's a silence that could be interpreted as tense when they arrive at their destination.

\- Look at this dialogue. This is the dialogue of a man whose brain has left the building in search of sleep:

> BUFFY: It's you.  
>  RILEY: It's me.  
>  BUFFY: You're here.  
>  RILEY: I know.

and

> BUFFY: Nice wheels.  
>  RILEY: Came with the car.

(I headcanon he did not intend this as a joke. Same with apologizing about not having jetpacks.)

\- I _also_ headcanon that Buffy's flirtiness when they're about to rappel down the wall whooshes straight over Riley's head. He can connect carabiners or whatever on autopilot, but he doesn't have enough spare thinking capacity for deciphering subtext or implications.

\- Same with not getting the implications of asking Buffy if he should kill Spike for her. It's just... a thing he could do, by mission parameters. Just going down the checklist. (Although he does dislike Spike, so this could be either way.)

\- How could he recruit the Slayer without filling her in on the objective? Easy. The real question is how he still sounds marginally coherent.

\- He beat up a crypt for information. Not a vampire, just a crypt that he knows. The crypt told him Spike is the Doctor.

**Author's Note:**

> That last bit is a stretch, but so's canon.
> 
> In the Dreamwidth comments, beer_good_foamy [made](https://thenewbuzwuzz.dreamwidth.org/184519.html?thread=955079#cmt955079) the excellent point that Riley might also be on some kind of drugs if the army used something to keep people alert longer. There was a bit of a discussion as to whether his Initiative experience makes him less or more likely to take such stimulants if they were available to him.
> 
> What are your thoughts? Maybe you have any double all-nighter stories? For your sake, I hope you don't, but if you do, I'd love to hear them, for science and a deeper understanding of BtVS.


End file.
